One Shot
by SveaR
Summary: Becker and Matt are enjoying a after-work-beer together, while the soldier dwells on thoughts. Little one shot on how they became friends.


_A/N: This fiction includes a scene from the webisodes that were set before season 4._

_I don't own, but I had fun!_

_And reviews are welcome_

* * *

Jess had just given Matt his identification wristband when Becker approached them.

"You must be Matt Anderson!" Matt nodded slightly at the mention of his name. "Welcome to the ARC!" The words might have been nice; but Becker's body language was dismissive. It didn't surprise Matt much; he had actually expected it.

"Good to meet ya!" The Irish man said in return, waiting for the things to come.

"Lester tells me you might have a problem." The head of security didn't waste any time in coming the point.

Matt had planned on avoiding this topic until a later point, but since Becker had brought it up, he would tell him now.

"We don't have to get into this now, but as it happens, yeah, the security team should be in civies."

"You're ex-army right?"

"I just think the whole black thing is a little conspicuous."

"Conspicuous? It promotes unity and gives my men authority in the field."

Matt's glance wandered from Becker to Jess. "Well, I expect the big guns would have the same effect."

"The uniforms promote public confidence, especially when weapons are involved. Neither Professor Nick Cutter nor Danny Quinn ever had problems with them.

Matt could tell that Becker wouldn't change his mind, so he decided to change the subject. "Oh, we can talk about this again, can't we? Why don't you just show me around?"

A good start was something different; Becker knew that too well, as his thoughts drifted back to the day he met Matt for the first time.

Funny enough, and not quite believing it, Becker now sat in a pub, a beer in his hands, with Matt beside him. It had become a dear tradition for both of them to have an after-work-beer together. On most days they sat in comfortable silence, but sometimes they talked about the events of their work day.

Becker smiled to himself as the second beer was placed in front of him. Matt had ordered two new ones minutes ago.

When Becker had started to work for the new ARC, he had decided to stay to himself, to not become friends with his new colleagues. He had lost too many friends in the past and he didn't want deal with such emotions again.

Then he had met Jess, and she silently fought her way into his heart. He had tried to close her out of his mind, but failed. Jess' advances where quite flattering and if he was completely honest with himself, he quite liked having her near him.

And there was Matt, the new leader – Danny's replacement. Becker had watched Matt closely, searching for mistakes he might make, listening carefully in case Matt would judge unfavorably towards the old team. But nothing happened. Instead, Matt had made it clear that even if Abby, Connor and Danny were declared missing, presumably dead, he rejected the government's findings. Still, Becker hadn't wanted to trust Matt, and he didn't want Matt to trust him either. Plus, there was still the issue with the EMDs.

"You are late!" Matt stated when Becker finally found his way to the firing range. The leader had asked Becker to take a look at the new guns. The soldier had only words of disgust for these new weapons and because of that Matt expected him to be late anyways. Matt knew that Becker didn't want to like him, and he wondered slightly if Becker's aversion to the weapons was partially because Matt had invented them himself.

Matt tossed Becker an EMD.

"Oh, excellent, tasers!"

Ignoring his tone, Matt spoke up. "These are in a different league then any tasers you have ever used in the past. I wouldn't have designed it, if it didn't work!"

"You need to remember how many friends I've lost. I'm not going to risk anymore lives playing around with pre-shooters."

Jess piped up, explaining how the EMD's were to be used. Becker rudely cut her off, for once not enjoying her voice since she was so obviously siding with Matt here, and told her that he knew how tasers worked. He saw her raise her eyebrows at Matt in the corner of his eyes. To his annoyance, she seemed amused by his interruption.

"I don't think he believes us!" It had been those words from Jess that caused a plan to set in Becker's mind.

"This is nothing like you have ever experienced before!" Matt said, unaware that this was the invitation Becker had hoped for.

The soldier passed the weapon back to Matt and stepped a few metres away.

"Okay try! I mean it, shoot me! If I think, it's an effective weapon I'll use it. If not, you'll back down!"

"You really, really don't want me to do this Becker?"

With a smug smile, the Captain answered, "Oh I do! Come on Matt, show me what you got!"

Jess couldn't believe it; those two grown up men really meant every word. She turned to her leader, knowing that talking to Becker would be a waste of words. "Matt, you can't! Would you stop being such a pair of kids?"

Matt shrugged his shoulders. "He started it!" He aimed, and turned back to Jess for a moment "It's okay. He'll live...probably."

"Have you fired it?"

The ball of electricity hit Becker with a force he didn't expect and, in the blink of an eye, he found himself flat on the floor and heard Jess rushing towards him.

A few minutes later, after Jess had left, was the first time that Becker really talked to Matt, as in _really _talked to him, giving him a proper chance at the job and even listening to Matt too. They were walking down the corridor together, Becker in a considerable amount of pain from the EMD's and not sure if he was more surprised by the efficiency of the weapons, or his newfound respect for the new team leader.

"How long until this wears off?" he asked.

The Irish looked at him with a smirk. "Burning: a couple of hours, headaches: couple of days, humiliation, well that kinda depends on when I get bored of it really."

"You're not really a funny man, Matt!"

"That depends on your point of view." Matt stopped and turned towards the solider, his tone now serious. "Look Becker, I know you lost friends, but I need you to understand that I won't do anything to risk the team."

"After Sarah was killed, I thought about quitting. Danny, Connor, Abby. The one thing I can do hear is to make sure that never happens again."

"It wasn't your fault! You know that!"

"It was my job to look after them, I failed!" There is was, Becker had voiced his feelings about the lose of his team mates for the first time. He had voiced them to the person he didn't want to trust the most.

"Guys," James, the barman had walked up to them interrupting Becker's thoughts, "Me and Craig made a bet." The barman motioned to a man sitting on the other end of the bar. "We were wondering how you two met."

Something about those two men, one always dressed in black, the other one wearing causal clothes, was just too odd. Both James and Craig had no idea what to think of them, so the bet had came up in hope to get to know a little about them.

Matt and Becker looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and amusement written over their faces.

"That's classified!" Matt answered with a grin, earning a bewildered look from James.

"Come on mates, you two come here nearly every day. You barely talk, not with each other, let alone others in the bar. Are you even friends? Or is it a coincidence that you always end up here at the same day and the same time?"

Becker placed the money for their drinks on the bar and stood up from his stool. Matt followed his lead when the soldier leant closer to James.

"Come here, mate" he said confidently to the older man. "I tell you a secret. Me and Matt, here, we are mates. And tell Craig, it took us one shot for us to become friends!"

Without another word, they suppressed their laughter and left a confused James behind.


End file.
